Return to Little Planet
Return to Little Planet is a live-action fan film created by SassoStudios and posted on YouTube. The plot centers on Sonic and his friends searching for the Time Stones (a central plot point for Sonic CD) after Sonic has a mysterious vision. Plot After an extensive philosophical monologue, the film opens up with Sonic getting out of bed and going through a daily preparation routine: showering, brushing his teeth, shaving, eating breakfast, and then exercising (including swimming, a direct contrast to Sonic's infamous fear of water). Soon afterwards, Knuckles arrives at Sonic's home, and asks him if he is ready; when Sonic says yes, Knuckles, for no particular reason, throws him into the bushes. The two then engage in a race, first with both on foot and then with Knuckles driving a car that is surprisingly able to keep up with Sonic. After narrowly avoiding an old man crossing the street, Sonic suddenly has a bizarre vision: that of a mysterious girl, on a moonlit beach, saying, "Gather the time to save me." This vision completely shatters Sonic's focus and concentration, and he trips and falls on the ground. Knuckles helps him up, and Sonic explains his vision. Both ultimately dismiss it as fever-induced delirium, and Knuckles offers to take Sonic home so that he can lie down. Sonic agrees, and they get into Knuckles' car (though Knuckles secretly calls Sonic a lunatic). As Sonic gets into the car, he wonders what the vision was. The next day, Sonic, confused over what happened goes to Sally, and attempts meditation alongside her. Sally coaches him, but Sonic ultimately decides that meditation and himself don't mix well, and both decide to quit. Sally teases him about the race, joking that he may be slipping off his game, or may have had his shoes untied or ran off track. Sonic then tells her of his vision. Skeptical of "the god of wind" having a vision, Sally remarks that Sonic may have eaten too many chili dogs, a possibility that Sonic quickly shoots down. Sonic proceeds to explain the contents of his vision; though his memory of it is somewhat fuzzy, he knows that the girl in the vision needs his help, making a joke about his popularity in the process. At that moment, Sonic remembers the girl's line about gathering the time. Sally determines that she means the Time Stones, and suggests going to Amy, who apparently knows their locations. Sonic agrees, and then comes to believe that "enlightenment" is beginning to work for him (to which Sally replies, "You have no idea."). After a short bus ride, Sonic runs through Station Square (in reality Boston) and eventually arrives at Amy's house. Knocking on the door and getting no answer, Sonic lets himself in and repeatedly calls for Amy; for a brief moment, he sees a practice dummy and punches it out, pretending it to be Knuckles. Sonic then grabs a bell and repeatedly rings it, shouting for Amy. Finally, annoyed by the bell, Amy runs in and knocks Sonic back onto the couch, and Sonic obediently stops ringing the bell and drops it. Having recently obtained a phone call from Sally about the Time Stones, Amy has already procured one, and also has a blue baseball cap that Sonic owns, which was given to her by Knuckles to give back to him. The two subsequently set off. Arriving at the beach from Sonic's vision, Sonic remarks that he has been here before, and he and Amy are then confronted by Shadow, who demands the Time Stones. Sonic refuses to do so, and then demands to know why Shadow wants them, asking if he has been tricked. Meanwhile, Amy summons the second Time Stone into her hand. Shadow immediately grabs Amy's hand, asking for her forgiveness. At that moment, Sonic knocks him away from Amy and orders him to back off. Shadow informs Sonic that he doesn't know or understand nothing, and easily counters Sonic's incoming punch. Telling Sonic to keep the Stones safe for him, Shadow knocks Sonic and Amy away with an energy shockwave and performs Chaos Control, leaving the two alone. Heavily injured, Sonic, carrying Amy in his arms, makes it back to the city before his strength abandons him. The scene then cuts to Tails' laboratory, where Knuckles is working out and Tails is performing experiments on a Chaos Emerald, which he has apparently been doing for some time. Tails explains the experiment to Knuckles; he is attempting to transfer Chaos Energy into a Ring, thus giving Sonic a portable power source. Sonic enters the basement, and it is revealed that he and Amy collapsed in Tails' yard and have been recuperating there, and Sonic explains what happened. Sally then enters, and it is explained that Tails called her to help Sonic and Amy heal from their injuries, while Knuckles complains about having to carry them inside. Using a wrist-mounted radar, as well as Amy's words, Tails deduces that the next Time Stone is in an abandoned factory north of South Island, which Sonic deduces to be the Chemical Plant Zone. After being questioned by Sally, Sonic states that he has fully recovered, and that Shadow's "little light show" barely scratched him. Sally remains skeptical, and tells Sonic that she believes that Sonic's recent visions are connected to a subconscious stress, though Sonic denies this. With that, he, Knuckles, and Tails depart to the Chemical Plant Zone on the Tornado. Arriving at the Chemical Plant Zone, Knuckles asks how they would find the Time Stone. Deducing that the Time Stones would react to each other's presence in a manner similar to the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic attempts to do so, but is unsuccessful in getting a signal. Reminding Sonic that the Time Stone is "a device for time travel, not a cell phone", Knuckles instructs Sonic and Tails to sit off to the side and wait while he, the "experienced treasure hunter", finds the Stone. Of course, things do not go as Knuckles planned; he struggles greatly with opening up the steel door. Seeing this, Tails, upon discovering that one only needs one Time Stone to be capable of time travel, suggests that Sonic travel into the past and find the Stone there, and Sonic agrees. As he prepares to go, Tails tells Sonic that he must follow two rules at all times while in the past: he must behave exactly like his younger self would and make sure to avoid coming into contact with his past self at all costs. Failure to do either may result in catastrophic alteration of the timeline or complete destruction of time itself. After briefly joking about the latter, Sonic takes off at full speed, and his Time Stone propels him into the past as Tails wishes him luck. Elsewhere, Shadow is communicating with a mysterious man, who orders him to bring "the girl" and the Time Stones to the Emerald Coast, as the girl will prove useful in gathering the Stones. Though unsure if he can trust the man, Shadow goes along with his plans, as the man is offering to allow him to alter history so that Maria was never killed. Meanwhile, Sonic arrives in the past, and is quickly confronted by Robotnik in a past confrontation between the two. However, Sonic is unable to remember exactly how he reacted and what he spoke in this fight, so he is forced to frequently repeat this in order to get it right; with each repeat, time seemingly becomes more erratic: at one point, Knuckles appears in Robotnik's place, and then Sonic's. During this period, we are shown constant flashes between the past and present Sonics, and how they behaved in comparison. After several tries, Sonic finally gets it right. Carrying on, Robotnik reveals his latest invention: a new, car-styled Egg Carrier, capable of traveling at speeds rivaling Sonic's and equipped with a complete database containing any and all information on Sonic. Sonic recites this information himself, and though confused, Robotnik puts it aside. In response to Sonic's comment about not seeing any means of combat on the Egg Carrier, Robotnik pulls out a machine gun-styled raygun, which leads to another apparent time loop with the present and past Sonics and Knuckles' reactions (present-Sonic says, "I don't remember that!", past-Sonic says, "Is that all you got?", and Knuckles says, "Who uses guns?"). Stating that talk is cheap, Robotnik fires at Sonic, but misses, and then reveals that he possesses the Time Stone that Sonic is looking for. A high-speed chase ensues between Sonic and the Egg Carrier, with Robotnik firing on Sonic all the while. After several minutes of this, Sonic performs the Spin Dash (judging by Robotnik's reaction, Sonic's location in the past is before Sonic the Hedgehog 2, where Sonic first utilized it) and hits Robotnik, stealing the Time Stone and running off. Accepting defeat for now, Robotnik chastises himself for basing his machine off of a single Time Stone and drives off to get something to eat. Arriving back at the Chemical Plant Zone, Sonic comes face to face with his past self, who has apparently followed him. Past-Sonic asks present-Sonic how he did the "spinny thing", and, before he answers, present-Sonic stashes the Time Stone he pilfered from Robotnik in a white metal box near where he and Tails were sitting in the present time, proceeding to inform past-Sonic that he needs the Time Stone a lot more right now. Past-Sonic asks present-Sonic just who he is, and present-Sonic, ignoring the question, tells him to put the Stone back in there for him when he is done playing with it, and past-Sonic agrees. After being asked again how he performed the spin technique, present-Sonic merely tells past-Sonic that he will "find out soon enough". Present-Sonic attempts to leave, but is once again stopped by past-Sonic, who asks present-Sonic if there is anything he would like to tell him. In exchange for past-Sonic's sunglasses, present-Sonic informs him that past-Sonic will meet someone who is "not all there" in a few years, and just to be nice to him. With that, present-Sonic takes off and returns to the present time. Astonished, past-Sonic attempts to duplicate this, but only succeeds in crashing into a wall and injuring himself. With this, past-Sonic simply decides to stick to trying to perform the "spinny thing". Back in the present, Sonic goes to where he stashed the Time Stone, and finds his past self's sunglasses along with it. He discovers that Knuckles is still struggling to open the door, and Sonic reveals that he found the Time Stone. An irate Knuckles then begins to strangle him. In another brief flash back to the past, Knuckles is shown in the street, having been transported there while apparently making coffee. Some time later, Sonic and Amy arrive at a beach, where the next Time Stone is located, and cross an elongated land bridge to a small island. As Amy begins to summon the next Time Stone, she suddenly collapses from exhaustion and falls back into the arms of the newly-arrived Shadow, who warps out of the area with her before Sonic can do anything to stop him. At that moment, Sonic is confronted by Robotnik, and both trade insults about their "game", before Sonic suddenly collapses from exhaustion. Robotnik reveals the reasons for this: summoning the Time Stones takes a significant portion of the summoner's own life force. As Amy was too weak, she had to draw the necessary energy from Sonic himself. Robotnik taunts Sonic by telling him that his attempts to collect the Time Stones will kill Amy, and as Sonic lies, exhausted with the waves crashing over him, also boasts that Sonic is finally "bowing before him". Robotnik then plants a small device (presumably a time bomb) on Sonic's wrist, telling him that he has "one hour left to suffer", and departs. Some time later, at the Emerald Coast, Amy tells Shadow that Robotnik is just using him, but Shadow refuses to listen. After a brief insult trade between Amy and Robotnik, the latter departs, and Shadow, having heard from Robotnik that Amy is weak from previous Time Stone summons, tells her to rest for a while before she summons the next one. Meanwhile, Knuckles and Sally arrive at the beach, and find an unconscious Sonic drift up to shore and take him home. Upon awakening, Sonic, despite Sally's efforts to comfort him, beats himself up for letting Shadow kidnap Amy. Sally then informs him that she has heard about Robotnik basing himself up in the Ice Cap Zone, and Amy held hostage at the Emerald Coast. In response to Sonic's comment about the Ice Cap Zone being cold, Sally gives him some warm clothing. Proceeding this, Sonic formulates a plan with Tails and Knuckles; he deploys Tails to find Amy and Knuckles to meet up with him at the Ice Cap Zone. Sonic, however, is not concerned about Shadow, stating that they have dealt with people with "mental and emotional problems" before (treating us to a bizarre image of Knuckles kissing and caressing a Chaos Emerald), and Tails agrees before Sonic departs. However, Tails realizes that Sonic forgot the Chaos Energy Ring that he had designed, and sends Knuckles to give it to him. While on his way, Sonic is stopped by Shadow, and tells him that he is merely Robotnik's pawn. Shadow states that he doesn't care as long as he can see Maria again. Deciding that he can't reason with Shadow, Sonic engages in a race with him, but Shadow catches him off-guard and punches him in the face, shouting that nothing, especially not Sonic, will stop him from seeing Maria again. Shadow then proceeds to violently beat Sonic, who doesn't even try to fight back. Sonic tells Shadow that he is letting himself be tricked and is merely fighting himself. Just as Shadow pulls back to punch Sonic again, Knuckles arrives, holds him back, and subsequently punches him out. Knuckles then gives Sonic the Ring, and both team up and fight Shadow. Even outnumbered, Shadow easily outmatches them. Ultimately, Knuckles decides to hold back Shadow while Sonic goes to the Ice Cap Zone, but is quickly defeated. In a final confrontation, Sonic, using a Chaos Energy-empowered Spin Dash, rushes Shadow, who simultaneously hits him with a bright flash of light. In the end, Sonic is left standing, and Shadow falls unconscious. Sonic continues on his way. Arriving at the Ice Cap Zone, Sonic receives a text message from Tails, telling him that he has saved Amy. Glad to hear this, Sonic confronts Robotnik and both banter. Afterwards, Shadow arrives and attacks Robotnik, using Chaos Control to warp him away. Proceeding this, Sonic tells him that one only needs one Time Stone to travel through time, and gives him one of them. Shadow immediately uses it to go back in time. Some time later, Sonic meets up with Sally in her backyard, telling her that he plans on going on vacation and considering going to Soleanna. Sally tells him that Soleanna is nothing more than a "tourist trap", and Sonic takes her advice. Sally then reveals numerous things about this adventure: the girl in his vision was in fact Amy, who somehow sent that to him from the future when she was kidnapped to implore Sonic to save her, thus setting the entire series of events in motion, and with this journey, Sonic not only stopped Robotnik once again, but also became closer to his all of his friends and helped Shadow conquer his own personal demons. During this conversation, however, Sonic falls asleep. Sally then takes Sonic's sunglasses and does a rather corny impersonation of him. Awakening, Sonic says, "You wish", and Sally calls him a geek. After the credits, Shadow, having gone back in time, meets up with Maria once again. Deleted Scenes Three scenes that did not make the final cut of the film have been released: * Sonic and co. were originally going to compete in a dance contest for a Time Stone, but this was cut because all but Erika (Sally's portrayer in the film) had no rhythm. While training, Sonic attempts to teach Knuckles some basic dance moves, but Knuckles only ends up tripping over himself. Sonic enlists Sally to help him train Knuckles, proceeding to go find Tails. After telling him that she is going to help him learn the art of dancing, Knuckles shouts in her ear, "I don't think I like art!", and Sally slaps him in retaliation. Sonic returns, having been unable to find Tails, and Knuckles storms off in anger. * In an alternate version of Sonic's time travel and fight with Robotnik, Tails goes back in time with Sonic. At that moment, they are confronted by Robotnik, but instead of the extended replays and conversation, Robotnik quickly whips out the raygun and fires at them. Taking cover, Tails shouts, "He's lost it!", and Sonic replies, "When did he ever have it?!" Taunting then with the Time Stone, Robotnik takes off, and Tails tells Sonic to keep in touch with him via Codec (a pun off of the Metal Gear games) as Sonic takes off after him. * In an alternate ending, Sonic travels back in time after Robotnik and confronts him at the beach, and has a massive brawl with him as Robotnik fires on him with a raygun. Ultimately, Sonic defeats Robotnik and damages his Time Stone, which, according to Robotnik, has trapped them in the past. Disagreeing, Sonic calmly snaps his fingers, and Robotnik is sent on a "one-way trip" back to the present. Category:Sonic the Hedgehog Category:Fan films Category:Films based on video games Category:American action films Category:American science fiction films Category:Science fiction action films Category:Time travel films Category:2008 films Category:2000s action films Category:2000s science fiction films